jon huntsman has made it clear that he will not compete in iowa. he could be a formidable challenger. the question is will that steepen the victory for the people that come out of that state doing well or not? what inevitably happens in iowa is the person who comes out of that race comes out with a lot of momentum. what is important is not just the perception among voters, but the perception among donors. so what you will see is people cashing in on those victories. i think iowa is an important state no matter to compete staircase. how important it will be remains toe seen. host: kathy kiely is the politics managing editor. the numbers to call -- a story in "to "the huffington post" recently -- how does that play out in terms of candidates figuring out their strategy and carrying their message? guest: it plays out because this is one of the controversial aspects of our electi system. we use an electoral college system which makes certain states very important, states where the candidates know the battle will be closely fought. other states become f